Nærøy is a former municipality of Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020. It is now part of Nærøysund Municipality in the Namdalen region. Norway's smallest town, Kolvereid, was the administrative centre of the municipality. Some villages in Nærøy Municipality included Abelvær, Foldereid, Gravvika, Lund, Ottersøya, Salsbruket, Steine, and Torstad. At the time of its dissolution in 2020, the 1068 km2 municipality was the 96th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Nærøy was the 200th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 5,072. The municipality's population density was 4.8 PD/km2 and its population had increased by 2% over the previous decade.

General information

Nærøy was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 July 1869, the western island district was separated from Nærøy Municipality to become the new Vikten Municipality. This left Nærøy Municipality with 1,477 residents. On 1 January 1902, an unpopulated area of Kolvereid Municipality was transferred to Nærøy Municipality. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, a large merger took place. The following areas were merged to form a new, larger Nærøy Municipality: On 1 January 2018, Nærøy Municipality switched from the old Nord-Trøndelag county to the new Trøndelag county. On 1 January 2020, most of Nærøy Municipality was merged with the neighboring Vikna Municipality to form the new Nærøysund Municipality. The Lund area in Nærøy Municipality was not part of the merger, however, instead it became part of the newly enlarged Namsos Municipality on the same date.

Name

The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the island of Nærøya since the Old Nærøy Church was built there. The meaning of the first element is uncertain. It is maybe the stem form of the name of the Norse god Njord (but it is suspicious that it is not in the genitive case). The last element is which means "island". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Nærøen or Nærø. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Nærøy.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms was granted on 22 May 1987 and they were in use until 1 January 2020 when the municipality was dissolved. The official blazon is "Or, three fleur-de-lis in pall stems conjoined gules". This means the arms have a field (background) that has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The charge is three conjoined fleur-de-lis aligned in a Y-shaped design. The fleur-de-lis design is red to symbolize the local water lilies which generally have a reddish color. The arms are also based on the seal of King Håkon Magnusson from 1344, on a document in which the King granted several rights to the local farmers. The seal shows St. Mary in a portal decorated with fleur-de-lis, the symbol of St. Mary. The arms were designed by Einar H. Skjervold. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches

The Church of Norway had four parishes (sokn) within Nærøy Municipality. It is part of the Namdal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Nidaros.

Geography

The municipality was located in the northwestern part of Trøndelag county, along the Foldafjord. It included the islands of Austra and Gjerdinga and the Kvingra peninsula. Several large lakes were located in the municipality including Mjosundvatnet, Salvatnet, and Storvatnet. The highest point in the municipality was the 873.58 m tall mountain Fuglstadfjellet on the border with Bindal Municipality to the north.

Government

While it existed, Nærøy Municipality was responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality was governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor was indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the Namdal District Court and the Frostating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council

The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Nærøy was made up of 27 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors

The mayor of Nærøy was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who held this position:

Transportation

Norwegian County Road 17 crossed the northeastern part of the municipality. There was a large network of bridges in the municipality that connected the islands and crossed the fjords. Most notably was the Marøysund Bridge and Nærøysund Bridge which connected Nærøy Municipality to Vikna Municipality to the west. Also Hestøy Bridge and Smines Bridge connected the village of Lund to Fosnes Municipality to the south.

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